John F. Kennedy Jr. Biography

John F. Kennedy Jr., son of the late president John F. Kennedy
(1917–1963), avoided politics and followed his own path as a
magazine publisher. After attending his own father's funeral as a
child, Kennedy, Jr., saw a series of early deaths in his family. He
himself was claimed by a tragic accident in the prime of his life.

President's son

John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr., was born on November 25, 1960, the son of
John F.

John F. Kennedy Jr.
Reproduced by permission of

AP/Wide World Photos

.

Kennedy (1917–1963), who had just won election as the
thirty-fifth president of the United States, and Jacqueline
("Jackie") Kennedy (1929–1994). He was the first
child ever born to a president-elect. The Kennedys gave the nation the
closest model they had ever had to a royal family. John-John, as he
became known, and his sister Caroline regularly made the news and helped
to create an image of the Kennedys as an ideal American family.

While campaigning in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963, the president
was shot and killed. Just three months earlier, the family had grieved
when new baby Patrick died two days after his birth. The death of John
F. Kennedy shocked the nation, and the image of the president's
three-year-old son at the funeral, wearing a short coat that revealed
his bare knees, saluting his father's coffin as it passed, was
heartbreaking.

Always in the public eye

In 1964 Jackie Kennedy moved with her children to an apartment in New
York City, where she hoped they might be able to avoid the media. The
family would soon suffer another difficult loss. On June 6, 1968, the
late president's brother, Robert Kennedy (1925–1968), who
had become a father figure to his nephew and niece, was assassinated in
California while campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Four months later, Jackie Kennedy married the wealthy businessman
Aristotle Onassis (1906–1975).

The young Kennedy would sometimes get into fights with reporters and
photographers who followed him and his sister around. The media
criticized him for being self-centered and for his less than outstanding
record at school. After high school he became more serious about his
education. First, he studied environmental issues at a school in Africa.
He would later return to Africa following his freshman year at Brown
University in Providence, Rhode Island. While in Africa he worked with a
mining firm in Johannesburg, South Africa, and met student and
government leaders in Zimbabwe. During his college years he also worked
with the Peace Corps in Guatemala to help earthquake victims.

After graduating with a bachelor's degree in American history in
1982, Kennedy studied at the University of Delhi in India. When
he returned to the United States he went to work for the New York City
Office of Business Development in 1984. In 1986 he entered New York
University Law School, mainly to please his mother. At the 1988
Democratic National Convention he gave a speech to introduce his uncle,
Senator Edward Kennedy (1932–), that earned him a two-minute
standing ovation and led many to wonder if he was preparing to run for
office. He passed his bar exam (a test that a person must pass before he
or she is allowed to practice law) on the third try and was hired in
August 1989 as an assistant prosecutor in the Manhattan office of New
York district attorney Robert Morgenthau (1919–). He won all six
of the cases that he prosecuted in court before leaving the position in
1993.

New ventures

In September 1995 Kennedy cofounded
George
magazine, which had the slogan "Not politics as usual."
He wrote essays and interviewed people for the publication. Some
observers suggested that his magazine venture was a way for him to gain
the public-affairs knowledge that he would need in order to run for
office, but he denied that he was planning to enter politics. On
September 21, 1996, he married Carolyn Bessette (1966–1999) in a
private ceremony on Cumberland Island off the coast of Georgia. It was
one of the few major events in his life during which he managed to avoid
publicity. He and his wife appeared to be a happy couple as they made
their home in New York.

On July 16, 1999, Kennedy, his wife, and her sister Lauren Bessette
(1964–1999) were declared missing at sea after their plane
crashed into the water near the coast of Martha's Vineyard,
Massachusetts. Kennedy was an amateur pilot who had earned his license
in April 1998. All three bodies were eventually recovered from the
wreckage and buried at sea on July 22, 1999.

User Contributions:

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), also referred to as John F. Kennedy, JFK, John Kennedy or Jack Kennedy, was the 35th President of the United States. He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery on November 25, 1963 and his gravesite is one of the most visited spots in the cemetery. He was moved from the original gravesite to one just a few feet away on March 14, 1967. His wife, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was laid to rest next to him when she died of cancer in 1994. His infant daughter (who was not named) and who was born and died on August 23, 1956 is also buried in his gravesite as of December 4, 1963. She was originally buried in Newport, Rhode Island. An infant son, Patrick Bouvier Kennedy (August 7, 1963-August 9, 1963) who was born prematurely and who was originally buried at Brookline, Massachusetts, is also buried in this site as of December 4, 1963 Kennedy was born in Brookline, Mass., on May 29, 1917, a descendant of Irish Catholics who had immigrated to America in the 19th century. His father, Joseph P. Kennedy, was a combative businessman who became a multimillionaire, head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, and ambassador to Great Britain.